"husband" or "prisoner"?!
It is sometimes difficult for English native speakers to distinguish between Japanese short and long vowels. The tendency is to pronounce a short vowel longer than it should be.
What happens if a short vowel is pronounced long? Well, one of the two things can happen: 1) what you say will be understood, but you give an impression that your Japanese has an English accent; 2) if there is a pair of words whose only difference is the length of a vowel, you’ll be misunderstood.
2) can bring you some devastating result! For example, “(my) husband” in Japanese is 主人 しゅじん shujin. Meanwhile, “prisoner” in Japanese is 囚人 しゅうじん shuujin. So, the vowel “u” is short in “(my) husband”, but long in “prisoner”. If you pronounce “u” for too long, you could be calling your husband a prisoner!
What happens if a short vowel is pronounced long? Well, one of the two things can happen: 1) what you say will be understood, but you give an impression that your Japanese has an English accent; 2) if there is a pair of words whose only difference is the length of a vowel, you’ll be misunderstood.
2) can bring you some devastating result! For example, “(my) husband” in Japanese is 主人 しゅじん shujin. Meanwhile, “prisoner” in Japanese is 囚人 しゅうじん shuujin. So, the vowel “u” is short in “(my) husband”, but long in “prisoner”. If you pronounce “u” for too long, you could be calling your husband a prisoner!
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